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Chaz Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn't know which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into biology just to make a killing, and now he's found a way-doctoring water samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the endangered Everglades. When Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for Chaz, his wife doesn't die in the fall. Clinging blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan. Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband's crime, Joey decides to stay dead and (with Mick's help) screw with Chaz until he screws himself. As Joey haunts and taunts her homicidal husband, as Chaz's cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years of island solitude haven't killed the reckless romantic in him, we're taken on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.

"From the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher:Chaz Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn’t know which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into biology just to make a killing, and now he’s found a way–doctoring water samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the endangered Everglades. When Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for Chaz, his wife doesn’t die in the fall.

Clinging blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan. Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband’s crime, Joey decides to stay dead and (with Mick’s help) screw with Chaz until he screws himself.

As Joey haunts and taunts her homicidal husband, as Chaz’s cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years of island solitude haven’t killed the reckless romantic in him, we’re taken on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.

From the Hardcover edition.

Annotation:Chaz Perrone is as slimy as they come. Not only does his position as a marine biologist mask his real job (faking data about water pollution for the guy who wants to sacrifice the Everglades to his vast agribusiness empire), but he tries to murder his wife by tossing her off a cruise ship when she shows signs of knowing too much. And that's his big mistake. Joey, his wife, survives, and, determined to bring Chaz and his boss down, teams up with an eccentric cop named Mick Stranahan, her unlikely rescuer. Carl Hiaasen's wacky satire lines up all the pigeons and then, in his usual over-the-top way, shoots them down. But under the laughs is some very serious indignation, as Hiaasen deplores what's being done to his beloved home state of Florida.

Author Bio

Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism in 1974 and began writing for the Miami Herald in 1976. Since then he has earned a stellar reputation as an investigative reporter, uncovering political corruption, local conspiracies, and drug dealing in South Florida. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize numerous times for his probing column in the Herald, Hiaasen turned to writing mysteries with "Tourist Season", his debut novel published in 1986. He has continued to write a series of darkly comic novels set in his native Florida, including "Strip Tease", which was made into a film starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds. Hiaasen has also dabbled in songwriting, co-writing two songs on Warren Zevon's album "Mutineer".

Praise

Publishers Weekly"Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest....Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end." 05/10/2004

New York Times Book Review"...[A] screwball delight so full of bright, deft, beautifully honed humor that it places Mr. Hiaasen in the company of Preston Sturges, Woody Allen and S. J. Perelman." - Janet Maslin 07/12/2004